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A project of the Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge Program at the Center for Global Metropolitan Studies at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley

Proceedings From:

NEW RURALISM & OTHER URBAN–RURAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

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New Ruralism Symposium

Introduction 1

Agenda 5

Acknowledgements 11

Presentation Summaries 13

Biographies 33

Posters 69

Photo Gallery 84

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SIBEllA KRAuS

Introduction to Informal Proceedings

September 18, 2007

The Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge (AME) program was initiated

in the fall 2006 by UC Berkeley’s Center for Global Metropolitan Studies, in

recognition of the fact that agriculture is an integral system for sustaining

metropolitan regions. The AME program engages faculty, students and

practitioners in an in-depth investigation of systems- and place-based issues

affecting the urban/rural interface. Through research projects, symposia and

publications, the program explores periurban agriculture as one of the basic

frameworks for understanding and managing the growth of metropolitan

regions worldwide.

The first major project of AME was a symposium, “New Ruralism & Other

Urban-Rural Sustainability Strategies”, held at UC Berkeley on April 5 – 6,

2007. The Symposium brought together over 200 leading policy makers,

scholars, farmers, planners, and activists involved in bridging sustainable

agriculture and smart growth. The starting point for the Symposium was the

idea that the health and sustainability of our urban areas depends on the

vitality and sustainability of the surrounding rural region. In ten interactive

sessions, presenters and participants identified research needs, best

practices, and policies – as well as multiple challenges – for advancing urban-

rural linkages.

Here were some of the key findings:

• The urban-rural dichotomy doesn’t work any more. Instead of a hard

edge separating discrete interests and uses, the new ‘cutting edge’

is a complex set of interactions and relationships from city center to

heartland.

• Payments for environmental services provided by sustainable

agriculture are feasible given specific conditions. Incentives and

compensation must be targeted, standardized, and must optimize

benefits in order to make the best use of limited public resources

and demanding private markets.

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• The most promising land use policies for preserving prime farmland

emphasize multifunctionality. Preserving California’s prime farmland

while accommodating the projected population growth of 15 million

people in the next 20 years requires policies shaped to achieve

multiple environmental, economic, and social goals.

• Public health concerns are a major impetus for linked urban and

rural sustainability. Negative impacts of industrialized agriculture

and food systems affect both urban and rural sectors, and include

diet-related health problems, inadequate access to fresh nutritious

food in low-income communities, and unhealthy, unfair working

conditions for farm labor. These problems are linked and so must be

the solutions.

• Regional food and agriculture systems help provide resiliency to

metropolitan regions. Strengthening regional agriculture can mean

enhancing economic viability of farms, natural resources, and

demographic diversity (especially farmers). As a result, metropolitan

regions can be more resilient in the face of global market

vicissitudes and climate variability. Local food production can also

help reduce greenhouse emissions, a main cause of climate change.

• Strategic partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations are key

to addressing complex urban-rural interface issues. Researchers,

practitioners, and policy makers are working together more on

whole systems problems. However, more incentives and more

opportunities are needed.

Building on the Symposium findings and on feedback from participants,

the AME program is planning several initiatives for the 2007-08 academic

year. Within UC Berkeley, AME and the Global Metropolitan Studies Center

in partnership with the College of Natural Resources, are pursuing a grant

to establish the study of agriculture in urban-influenced areas as a new

‘Core Issue’ area for the UC system wide Division of Agriculture and Natural

Resources.

The research priority is to develop a planning framework and assessment

tool for multifunctional, urban-influenced, agricultural land use that can

be linked with existing frameworks used for urban planning and natural

resources assessment. This area of research is being developed by the AME

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program in collaboration with the Sacramento Council of Governments

which wants a foundation on which to build a ‘greenprint’ as a corollary to

its Urban Land Use and Transportation Plan Blueprint. It is also of interest to

other regional planning organizations that are seeking more finely calibrated

criteria to identify priority agricultural lands for permanent conservation.

The preliminary idea for the 2008 Symposium is to focus on case studies

about places that demonstrate some measure of synergistic urban-rural

sustainability (with scales ranging from rural community to metro/region).

Each session will profile a specific place from a series of perspectives: social/

demographic, environmental, agricultural economics and viability, and policy

context. This setting will also allow us to showcase our preliminary work on

developing an urban/rural planning framework.

The AME program looks forward to working closely with faculty affiliates

of the UC Berkeley Global Metropolitan Studies Center and to engaging with

other researchers and practitioners to make UC Berkeley a leading center for

the study of ‘agricultural planning.

These informal proceedings resulted from the desire of participants to

have a record of Symposium events and presenters. Included are summaries

of many of the presentations given, some in document form, some in poster

form, and some in Power Point format. We trust you will find the proceedings

useful and easy to navigate.

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AGRICulTuRE AT THE METROPOlITAN EDGE

New Ruralism & Other Urban-Rural Sustainability Strategies

Public Symposium • University of California, Berkeley • April 5-6, 2007

ThURSdAy, APRIl 5Th

9:00am - 9:15am: Official Welcome

dean harrison Fraker, College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley.

Introduction and Overview of Conference.

Sibella Kraus, Director, Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge, UC Berkeley

9:15am - 10:45am Opening Plenary

Three speakers establish symposium purpose and vision, and set urban and

rural contexts of what we know and what we need to know.

Moderator: Elizabeth deakin, Co-Director, Global Metropolitan Studies

Initiative, Professor UC Berkeley, City & Regional Planning and Urban Design

• Tom Tomich, Director, UC Davis Agriculture Sustainability Institute, and

Director, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Center

(SAREP) – Why Focus “at the edge”?

•Gary Patton, Executive Director, Planning and Conservation League

•Carl Anthony, Ford Foundation Senior Fellow; former Ford Foundation

Program Officer, and Director of the Foundation’s Sustainable Metropolitan

Communities Initiative

11:00am - 12:30pm Agriculture and Food Policies

An exploration of leading agriculture and food policies and programs with a

focus on those most relevant to the urban-rural interface.

Moderator: Glenda humiston, Ph.D. Candidate, UC Berkeley, Environmental

Science, Policy and Management, - European Food and Agricultural Policies

•Ed Thompson, California State Director & Senior Associate, American

Farmland Trust - U.S. Agricultural Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for

Preserving Urban Edge Agriculture

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•SusanClark1, Executive Director, Columbia Foundation; Founding Chair,

Roots of Change Fund - The New Mainstream Food and Farming System: A

Vivid Picture of California’s Food System in 2030

•AndyFisher,ExecutiveDirector,CommunityFoodSecurityCoalition-

Community and Regional Food Policy Guide for the APA

12:30pm - 1:30pm Lunch

Speaker - A.G. Kawamura, Secretary, California Department of Food and

Agriculture - Future of California Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities;

Introduced by Susan Clark

1:45 pm – 3:15pm Environmental Services and Impacts of Urban Edge

Agriculture

Approaches for assessing and monetizing environmental functions and

impacts of ecological urban-edge agriculture.

Moderator: lynn huntsinger, Professor, Environmental Science, Policy &

Management, UC Berkeley

•Claire Kremen, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley, Environmental Science,

Policy and Management - Relationship Between Land Use Practices, Wild

Bee Communities and Pollination Services*

•david Zilberman, Professor, UC Berkeley, Agriculture and Resource

Economics - Markets for Environmental Services*

•Steve Shaffer, Director, California Department of Food and Agriculture,

Office of Agriculture and Environmental Policy - Emerging Trend of

Certification of Sustainable Practices; Multiple Environmental Services of

Farmland

•Jo Ann Baumgartner2, Executive Director, WildFarm Alliance; Author,

“Farming with the Wild” - Helping Farmers Incorporate Conservation

Practices in their Farms and Watersheds: Models & Resources*

1 Presented in place of Michael Dimock, who was unable to attend 2 Presented in place of Dan Imhoff, who was unable to attend

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3:30 pm - 5:005pm Urban Edge Land Use Policies and Economics

Presentations on opportunities and challenges for continued agricultural

activity at the metropolitan edge.

Moderator: dick Walker, Chair, California Studies Center UC Berkeley

•John landis, Professor, UC Berkeley, City & Regional Planning – Farmland

Loss in California: Past Trends, Future Projections, Planning and Policy

Responses*

•Tim duane, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley, Landscape Architecture &

Environmental Planning, and City & Regional Planning - Maximizing the

Public Benefits of Agricultural Conservation Easements*

•Andrea MacKenzie, General Manager, Sonoma County Agricultural

Preservation and Open Space District – Land Conservation & Defining the

Urban Edge*

•holly King, Director of Agricultural Programs, Great Valley Center – On the

Ground in the Central Valley

5:30pm - 7:00pm Bay Area Buy Fresh, Buy Local & Slow Food Reception.

Poster Session featuring work from academics, design professionals, and

activists.

7:00pm - 9:00pm Public Lecture – Yolo County Case Study - The Making of

an Urban-Rural Place

Moderator: donlyn lyndon, Eva Li Professor Emeritus of Architecture and

Urban Design, UC Berkeley; Editor, Places Journal

Speakers:

•Richard Rominger, Farmer, Rominger Farms; former Secretary, California

Department of Food and Agriculture; former Undersecretary, USDA

•Mike McKeever, Executive Director, Sacramento Council of Governments

(SACOG)

•Paul Muller, Co-Owner, Full Belly Farm

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•Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor, City of West Sacramento

•Rick landon, Yolo County Agriculture Commissioner

•Mitch Sears, Open Space Planner, City of Davis3

FRIdAy, APRIl 6Th

9:00am - 10:45am Private Sector Roles

Opportunities and challenges for private landowners to advance sustainable

land-use and include sustainable agriculture on working landscapes at the

urban-rural interface.

Moderator: david dowall, Professor of City & Regional Planning; Director,

Institute of Urban and Regional Development, UC Berkeley

•Randall Arendt, Planner, Author of Protecting Metro-Edge Farmland

through Conservation Subdivision Design, Landscape Architect -

Conservation Subdivision Design: One Tool for Farmland Preservation*

•Al Medvitz, Rancher and UC Davis Public Policy Specialist -

Multifunctionality of Farms as a Public Benefit*

•Judy Corbett, Executive Director, Local Government Commission, Village

Homes*

•Steven Frisch, Vice President for Programs, Sierra Business Council

11:15am - 12:45pm Vitality of Rural Communities in Metropolitan-influenced

Regions

An investigation of social issues at the urban edge.

Moderator: Sally Fairfax, Henry J. Vaux Distinguished Professor of Forest

Policy, UC Berkeley

•Bronwynne Wilton4, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Guelph, School of

Environmental Design and Rural Development - Local Food, Horses, and

Lifestyle at the Metropolitan Edge in Southern Ontario, Canada*

3Was unable to attend

4Presented for Stuart Hilts, who was unable to attend

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• Constance Washburn, Education Director, Marin Agricultural Land Trust

- Cooperative and Diverse Approaches to Preserving and Supporting

Agriculture at the Urban Edge*

•Rex laird, Director, Ventura County Farm Bureau

•Martha Guzmán, Legislative Advocate for the California Rural Legal

Assistance Foundation - Farm Labor Issues*

12:45pm - 1:30pm Lunch

1:45pm - 3:30pm Emerging Urban-Rural Initiatives

Presentation of social factors underlying local food and agriculture

movements: access to fresh food, urban agriculture, and cultural traditions in

food and farming.

Moderator: Susan Roberts, Director, Food & Society Policy Fellows Program,

Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute

•Richard Jackson, Adjunct Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health,

City & Regional Planning - Public Health Impacts and Implications of Urban

Edge Agriculture*

•Gail Feenstra, Food Systems Coordinator, UC Sustainable Agriculture

Research and Education Program - The Local Food Systems Movement*

•Margaret Crawford, Professor, Harvard University, Urban Planning and

Design with Takako Tajima, landscape architect - Capturing Suburban Land

for Agriculture Through Social De-Commodification*

•Nevin Cohen, Visiting Assistant Professor, The New School, Eugene Lang

College, Creating a More ‘Civic’ Civic Agriculture

3:30pm - 4:00pm Wrap-up and Synthesis

Elizabeth deakin. Synthesis of ideas and directions for new and strengthened

alliances; policies and strategies; entrepreneurial opportunities; and

research and demonstration projects that can help bridge smart growth and

sustainable agriculture at the metropolitan edge in California and elsewhere.

*PowerPoint presentation

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Poster from the Yolo County Case Study Session

Thursday, April 5, 2007

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Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge: New Ruralism and Other Urban–Rural Sustainability Strategies

Public Symposium, University of California, Berkeley

April 5–6, 2007

This event would not have been possible without generous support from the following organizations and individuals. To them we extend our deepest gratitude.

Project of: Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge Program, Center for Global Metropolitan Studies at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley

UC Berkeley Sponsors: Dean’s Office, College of Environmental Design; Farrand Fund, Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning Department; and Knight Program for Science and Environmental Journalism.

Co-sponsors: American Farmland Trust; Roots of Change Fund; Whole Foods Market, and WRT Design

Reception Sponsor: Clif Bar

Supporters: EPA Region 9, Local Government Commission,

Thanks to: IURD Staff: Chris Amado, Carey Pelton, Janet Dawson, Emily Alter, Brian Pacheco Dean’s Office: Zsu Zsu Listro, Mary Cocoma, Nicole Avril Graduate Student Researcher: Alethea Marie Harper Public Relations: Michael Straus, Roberta Klugman

Planning Committee: Elizabeth Deakin, John Landis, Richard Jackson, Michael Dimock, Ed Thompson, Lynn Huntsinger, Sally Fairfax

Sibella Kraus (conference producer)

For further information, please visit the website http://metrostudies.berkeley.edu/agmetroedge or contact the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at 510-642-4874.

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RANDAll ARENDT

Planner, landscape Architect, Author

“Conservation Subdivision Design: One Tool for Farmland Preservation

(See accompanying PowerPoint presentation)

In metro areas where Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) and the Transfer

of Development rights (TDRs) are currently politically unattainable; where

public funds to purchase development rights (PDRs) are very limited; and

where land trusts have tapped out the potential for conservation easement

donations, one zoning technique that holds great promise for farmland

protection is “Conservation Subdivision Design”.

This approach to laying out subdivisions ensures that a significant

percentage of buildable uplands are permanently protected to create

interconnected networks of conservation lands. The percentage of protected

land varies according to project density, rising from 20-25% at density levels

of three or more dwellings/acre, to 75-80% at four or more acres/dwelling.

Conservation subdivisions are specifically designed around each site’s

most significant natural and cultural resources, with their open space

networks being the first element to be “green-lined” in the design process.

This open space includes all of the “Primary Conservation Areas” (inherently

unbuildable wetlands, floodplains, and steep slopes), plus 20-80% of

the remaining unconstrained land, depending upon zoning densities and

infrastructure availability.

The site planning process begins with general mapping of the project

site in its context of surrounding properties (up to 2000 feet away,

typically mapped at 1” = 400 feet). On this Location Map (compiled from

existing published data) are shown vegetative cover, topography, soils, and

floodplains.

A more detailed, site-specific Existing Resources and Site Analysis Map

is then created, identifying significant natural and cultural resources, such

as productive cropland, wildlife habitat and travel corridors, and significant

trees.

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A four-step process follows, with Step One separating the site’s resources

into two categories. The first, Primary Conservation Areas (PCAs), are limited

to unbuildable wetlands, floodplains, and steep slopes (>25%). Secondary

Conservation Areas are comprised of “the best of the rest”. Because the

PCAs would be off-limits to development in conventional developments in

any event, they are not counted toward the minimum required open space

percentages.

Step Two consists of locating home sites in relation to the protected open

space, to add livability, marketability, and value to the homes. Step Three

is to “connect the dots” with streets and trails. Step Four consists simply of

drawing in the lot lines. This process works best when guided by a landscape

architect or physical planner, collaborating with a civil engineer.

The optimal design process begins with a site walk by the LA/planner and

engineer, landowner, and developer, with the Existing Resources Site Analysis

Map in hand, usually reproduced on an aerial photo at the working scale. The

design is done in the field or immediately afterwards, on thin tracing paper

so that the underlying resource information is visible to the designers, who

typically work with pencil and eraser. The resulting Sketch Plan is then shown

to local officials, some of whom may have been invited to join the designers

on their initial site walk.

After completing the above procedures, the time is right to prepare the

highly detailed, expensive, Preliminary and Final Plans.

The above paragraphs summarize the key points relating to necessary

improvements to most local subdivision ordinances.

Zoning ordinances work best when density is established directly (such

as by designating density as three units per acre in sewered areas, or two

acres per dwelling in unsewered areas) instead of indirectly (such as through

minimum lot sizes, e.g., 12,000 sq. ft and 88,000 sq. ft). As long as density is

regulated indirectly through lot size, subdivisions will consist of nothing more

than house lots (of that size) and streets, with no open space.

Conservation design can be blended with “traditional neighborhood

design” (the “New Urbanism”) in areas with public water and sewerage.

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(See Crossroads, Hamlet, Village, Town: Design Characteristics of Traditional

Neighborhoods, Old and New, American Planning Association PAS Report

No. 523/524, 2004).

SuSAN ClARK

director, Columbia Foundation; Founding Chair, Roots of Change Fund, San

Francisco, CA

“The New Mainstream Food and Farming System: A Vivid Picture of

California’s Food System in 2030”

Most big-city mayors do not yet see urban-edge open space as vital to

the future food, fuel, and fiber supplies of their cities. Urban political leaders

are not yet alarmed by the development of prime agricultural lands for

the expansion of urban areas. Food system advocates need to harness the

politics of big cities on these issues.

If the U.S. continues to off-shore the food system, it will be impossible to

conserve agricultural lands on the urban edge and the “end of agriculture

in California”, as a UC Davis researcher described it, may occur in our

lifetime. The current food system is irrational and inefficient; trade is

redundant and wasteful. For example California imports avocados from

Mexico at the height of the California avocado season, and exports the

same products. The global market system will not create a sustainable

and just food system, nor preserve urban edge agriculture. The State of

California may need to de-commodify food and get it out of the world trade

regulations entirely – or develop a trade model wherein food is imported and

exported to supplement rather than supplant local food production.

The scale of most solutions proposed is not up to the scale of the

need and opportunity. Roots of Change (ROCFund.org), a foundation

collaborative, envisions a transition to sustainable food and farming systems

by the year 2030. The New Mainstream, a vision that is evolving with the

participation of farm and food leaders throughout California, posits that all

of California food and farming will transition to a gold standard of green

production practices and a just and sustainable distribution system which

improves the livelihood and health of farmers and farm workers, as well as

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their communities. The creation of a new urban/rural social contract is a

key component of the strategy for change. Cities in California will be fed by

surrounding farmlands. While California will continue to be a food exporting

economy, California farmers will feed Californians through the development

of many local and regional food systems.

The University of California could be the intellectual engine and

educational resource for California to become a leader in developing

sustainable food and farming systems. There are some big things UC could

do to move this agenda, including:

• Create the gold standard of green production practices for the entire

state – including animal husbandry;

• Establish a brand and certification program for California Agriculture;

• Increase the budget and reach of UC Extension with the explicit

mission to help all of California agriculture transition to sustainable

practices by the year 2030;

• Increase the budget and reach of SAREP to work with UC Extension

to achieve the mission of sustainable food and farming systems by the

year 2030;

• Increase the budget for Agroecology at UC Santa Cruz and

provide developmental support to the new Institute for Agriculture

Sustainability at UC Davis;

• Identify the policy levers and financing needed for the state to make

the transition to sustainable food and farming systems while honoring

and preserving California’s pioneering organic industry;

• Establish educational programs on all campuses to prepare a new

generation of the best and the brightest for careers in sustainable

food and farming in the state;

• Make a map of all prime farmlands in the state and establish priorities

for preserving farmlands and farming through positive agriculture

easements; and

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• Engage the business schools to develop new distribution systems

to serve decentralized and regionalized food systems in California;

create models for a more rational and efficient food trade regime; and

help create new business models for local ownership and control of

regional food systems.

NEvIN COHEN, PH.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor, The New School, Eugene lang College, New

york City, Ny

“Creating a More ‘Civic’ Agriculture” (See accompanying PowerPoint

presentation by the same name)

Many assessments of shortened food supply chains, and forms of civic

agriculture like farmers’ markets and CSAs, focus on the value of the face-

to-face economic transactions facilitated by these alternative food systems.

This presentation argues that a more civic agriculture depends on a strong

sense of place, and a deep connection to it, fostered by collectively owned

farmland that encourages shared responsibility for the foodshed among both

consumers and producers.

The presentation describes case studies of innovative efforts to connect

consumers to farming through the ownership of farmland: Angelic Organics,

a CSA whose members own part of the farm; Westhaven Farm at EcoVillage

Ithaca, a co-housing development that owns farmland and leases it to

farmers who grow organic food for the residents and the local farmers

market; and conservation subdivision developments, from Prairie Crossing

to Pardon Hill, that integrate working farmland and homes. In each case, the

farm co-owners are committed not only to ensuring the quality of the food

produced, the conditions under which it is produced, and the well-being of

the farmer and his/her family, but also to the farm property and policies that

affect the viability of the farming operation.

The cases suggest that smaller-scale, intensively-farmed land owned

by a combination of city residents, farmers, and suburbanites may create

a constituency for farmland protection, local food production, and safer

and more humane agricultural practices, and may be a replicable model

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for expanding metropolitan edge agriculture. Angelic Organics shows that

there is an interest on the part of individuals to make substantial capital

investments in farmland to expand production and help the CSA remain

profitable. EcoVillage Ithaca illustrates that intentional communities can

be unique constituents for civic agriculture, supporting and nurturing the

development of farmland that will feed their members and others in the

community. Both Prairie Crossing and Pardon Hill suggest that residential

development and farming can be combined successfully, offering residents

the opportunity to interact with farmers as neighbors, maintain a close

physical connection to farmland through trails through the farm, and forge a

greater connection to farming.

MARGARET CRAwfORD,

Professor, harvard University, Urban Planning and design with Takako

Tajima, MlA, landscape Architect

“Capturing Suburban Land for Agriculture Through Social

De-Commodification” (See accompanying PowerPoint presentation by the

same name)

The anthropologist, Arjun Appadurai, argues that the process of

commodification operates in two directions and that goods and services

can become de-commodified, partially de-commodified, or their commodity

value can be temporarily suspended. By applying this idea to land, we

imagine a new model of land tenure that would allow for the appropriation of

land through social action.

What is “weak” land tenure? “Weak” land tenure involves both process

and perception. As a process it is an act of appropriation that allows low-

income populations access to land’s use values without exchange values. As

a perception, it is the status of land’s exchange value either diminished or

suspended due to changes affected by time, circumstances, or through sheer

social force (“weak” land tenure as verb). It is when use values become freely

available to the public.

We tested these ideas in a strategy to reintroduce agriculture in northern

Orange County. We catalogued 25 different “weak” land tenure situations in

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this area (i.e., beach parking whose tenure “weakens” with changes in time

of day and seasons, brown fields, concrete rivers, etc.) and charted when,

where, and how much land would potentially be available for appropriation at

any given time.

Next, we developed ten speculative design projects that capitalize on

“weak” land tenure to demonstrate how food cultivation and distribution

might be reintegrated into the daily lives of Orange County residents. These

propose a range of possible types of new farms and new farmers’ markets

inspired by existing organizations, individuals and projects devoted to urban

agriculture and food provision and combine them with possible “weak”

land tenure sites to suggest an almost infinite number of new agricultural

possibilities that could, cumulatively, transform this area. They also

demonstrate how such under used and often invisible sites can help address

the problems that haunt urban areas, including environmental degradation,

hunger, and unemployment.

TIM DuANE

Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning and landscape

Architecture & Environmental Planning, UC Berkeley

“Maximizing the Public Benefits of Agricultural Conservation Easements”

(See accompanying Power Point presentation)

Conservation easements have become a conservation tool of choice in

many areas, and they have been applied extensively to “working landscapes,”

such as agricultural and ranchlands, in order to continue to maintain

agricultural and economic productivity while preventing urbanization and

development. Agricultural Conservation Easements (ACEs) often involve the

significant expenditure of public funds through both tax benefits and direct

public expenditures for conservation easements. The selection of agricultural

parcels for the expenditure of such public funds should, therefore, maximize

public benefits, such as flood management, wildlife habitat, and urban

growth management. Many programs select agricultural parcels for

conservation easements based only on agricultural viability and/or land cost

without explicit consideration of these or other public benefits associated

with ACEs. This presentation explores the spatial implications of maximizing

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the public benefits of agricultural conservation easements in the northern

San Joaquin Valley of California. It also elaborates on the possibility of using

public funds to acquire ACEs to reduce public liability for levee failures and

associated flood damages.

GAIl fEENSTRA, ED.D., R.D.

Food Systems Coordinator, Community Food Systems/Nutrition Program,

UC davis Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program

“The Local Food Systems Movement” (See accompanying Power Point

presentation by the same name)

Local /regional food systems are emerging across the country and have

become effective strategies for forging linkages between urban and rural

citizens. These regional food systems combine comprehensive, community-

based economic, educational, and policy initiatives to create new marketing

and planning tools. Although they look very different in various political and

economic contexts, they have key factors in common that contribute to their

success.

Researchers from different locales have worked together for more than

a decade on a nationwide project: “Sustaining local food systems in a

globalizing environment.” Lessons learned from three regional food systems

initiatives show the extent to which they are nurturing an urban-rural

compact: local agriculture marketing organizations and local food systems

initiatives (LFI’s) in California, and place-based food systems initiatives in

Missouri.

ANDy fISHER

director, Community Food Security Coalition

“Community and Regional Food Policy Guide for the APA”

Traditionally planners have not focused on the food system – in part

because it is not directly related to the built environment; and in part

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because it doesn’t deal with public goods (as currently perceived) or

planning for services (as currently perceived). In recent years, there has

been an increasing awareness of connections between urban planners and

food system advocates. While this awareness is leading to more in-depth

municipal food system planning, to date urban edge agriculture has been

largely ignored.

However, due to current hot-button issues like the obesity epidemic, and

for reasons that underlie the impact of planning on the food system, planners

are increasingly focusing on this aspect of the food system. For example,

urban sprawl affects farmland preservation and types of regional agriculture.

In addition, access to healthy foods in many communities is directly linked to

convenience of public transit.

In turn, the food system affects the interests of planners. Food system

activities take up a significant amount of urban and regional land. At 1 billion

acres nationally, agriculture is a dominant land use and one that represents

$1 trillion to the national economy, or 13% of the GNP. Food system activities

also account for 17% of national energy use, have impacts on water and air

quality, and have a huge impact on the nature of communities and quality of

life

In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) formally approved

a landmark community and regional food planning policy guide. This

document provides guidance to APA members on federal and state policy

positions. It also includes goals and recommendations to inform and guide

planners about analysis and actions that need to be considered in order to

integrate the food systems planning component into their overall planning.

The first recommendation is that planners undertake a comprehensive

municipal planning process. The APA has also undertaken related actions,

including a food planning workshop track at the annual conference and

dedicating an issue of its magazine to food systems planning. The net result

has been to legitimize food systems as an important issue for planners and to

engage an increasingly broad audience. The following examples demonstrate

some of the ways that planners and food system advocates are building on

their common interests.

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In Chicago, a land use covenant that restricted grocery store competition

was considerably weakened as a means to increase access to healthy foods.

Madison has a Comprehensive Plan that contains a variety of food system

planning measures related to food retail, community gardening, farmers’

markets, small-scale farming, and food policy councils. The fact that these

issues are addressed in a comprehensive and integrated fashion sets Madison

apart from other American cities. For example, the Plan details its support

for community gardens in a number of ways. The City will “protect existing

community gardens in the City and establish additional areas for new

community gardens.”

Madison planners also seek to improve the connections between the

surrounding rural economy and urban food processors and consumers.

The Plan states that the City will coordinate with Dane County “to educate

farmers with operations in the City about incentive programs that will

help them continue farming or to sell their land to farmers with interest in

smaller-scale agricultural operations.” It also calls for the City of Madison to

promote the sale of food grown in Dane County, and to support the County’s

efforts to promote and develop direct marketing alternatives for agricultural

products.

As a final example, the Community Food Security Coalition is part of a

broad coalition that is supporting a package of policies (with a $100 million/

year price tag) for the 2007 Farm Bill that will strengthen rural-urban

connections in numerous ways. These include farm-to-school and urban

agriculture programs; EBT (electronic benefits transfer) and FMNP (Farmers

market Nutrition Program) programs that prioritize purchase of locally-

grown food; infrastructure for regional food system development; and CSP

(conservation security program).

HOlly A. KING

director of Agricultural Programs, Great Valley Center

“On The Ground in The Central Valley” (See accompanying Power Point

presentation)

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California’s Central Valley produces two-thirds of the state’s agricultural

commodities and is the major supplier of fruits, nuts, and vegetables

consumed in the U.S. But it is the “last frontier” in farmland, with many of the

state’s agricultural areas being developed for non-farm use.

The Central Valley town of Delhi is a model of successful farmland

protection: such a program depends on protecting a critical mass of

contiguous farmland, generating opinion leaders from the farming

community, and supporting agriculture service providers in the community.

A statewide plan for agriculture similar to existing plans for water and

transportation could bring benefits beyond food production, such as

preservation of open space, groundwater recharge, and habitat protection.

Land use decisions that consider only development undervalue farmland,

necessitating the use of protective instruments such as agricultural

easements that protect farmland from development. Such easements are

expensive and need large reservoirs of funding to be effective in protecting

agricultural regions. CEQA is another potential tool for farmland protection

but leadership and political will is needed to build advocacy for preserving

agricultural land.

ANDREA MACKENzIE

General Manager, Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open

Space district

“Land Conservation and Defining the Urban Edge” (See accompanying

Power Point presentation by the same name)

Public land conservation programs can play a critical role in preserving

and maintaining urban edge lands in productive agriculture and in advancing

sustainable agriculture and local food production. Since 1990, the Sonoma

County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District’s program has

used the tools of the conservation easement and outright purchase to

remove the threat of development and fragmentation from over 70,000

acres of land. The District’s conservation work is done not in isolation but

in coordination with cities and counties and their adopted general plans.

Sonoma County’s land acquisitions have translated public policy into on-the-

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ground conservation successes, whether helping to support the agriculture

and tourism industries; holding the line on urban expansion and encouraging

city-centered growth; leasing back public greenbelt lands for small scale

farmers to grow healthy food for farm stands, schools, and restaurants;

or expanding public recreational opportunities in State and County Park

Systems.

Sonoma County is a good case study for looking at urban edge land

use policy and the interface with agricultural viability. Sonoma County

is the sixteenth largest agricultural economy in the state and has been

able to sustain agricultural diversity beyond its well-known vineyards to

encompass dairies, livestock, vegetables, nuts, and orchards. The key threats

to agricultural viability are rising land values, pricing of commodities, and

pressure to sell for development.

Beginning in 1990, residents expressed their concern for the loss of

agricultural land use by passing two landmark measures: one created the

Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District; and the other funded

its land conservation work with a 0.25 percent sales tax for 20 years. In

November 2006, residents voted to reauthorize the sales tax until 2031.

The District has a very diverse mission that allows for adaptive

conservation strategies. The District’s sales tax generates about $17 million

annually for purchasing conservation easements and land to protect

agriculture, greenbelts, natural resources, and recreation. Much of the

District’s work focuses on the urban/rural interface, where it uses strategic

conservation tools to reinforce the urban edge and to protect and maintain

agricultural land use. The District’s program assists farmers and ranchers

with staying in business and supports the niche agricultural markets of the

North Coast. Several years ago the District began a program called the Small

Farms Initiative, in which it leases its publicly protected greenbelt lands to

local farming operations for production of fruits and vegetables for markets,

schools, and restaurants.

In 2006, the District adopted a far-sighted new conservation plan

called “Connecting Communities and the Land” that recognizes the “green

infrastructure” benefits of land conservation: clean air and water, access

to local healthy food, safe routes to schools and parks, and alternative

transportation options. Increasingly, the public’s interaction with nature is

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at the urban/rural edge through experiences with local agriculture, farm

stands, and community gardens. Our conservation policies and efforts

must increasingly reflect a “whole communities approach,” recognizing the

inextricable link between agriculture and sustainable urban communities.

STEvE SHAffER

director, California department of Food and Agriculture, Office of

Agriculture and Environmental Policy

“Emerging Trend of Certification of Sustainable Practices; Multiple

Environmental Services of Farmland”

Various definitions have been provided for what constitutes sustainable

agriculture, ranging from the narrow focus on economics or production to

the incorporation of culture and ecology. Wendell Berry has simply said, “A

sustainable agriculture does not deplete soils or people.”

Over time, the International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and an

increasing number of researchers, farmers, policy-makers and organizations

worldwide have developed a definition that unifies many diverse elements

into a widely adopted, comprehensive, working definition: a sustainable

agriculture is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and

humane.

These four goals for sustainability can be applied to all aspects of any

agricultural system, from production and marketing to processing and

consumption. Rather than dictating what methods can and cannot be

used, they establish basic standards by which widely divergent agricultural

practices and conditions can be evaluated and modified, if necessary, to

create sustainable systems. The result is an agriculture designed to last and

be passed on to future generations.

Conceived in this sense, sustainable agriculture presents a positive

response to the limits and problems of both traditional and modern

agriculture. It is neither a return to the past nor an idolatry of the new. Rather,

it seeks to combine the best of traditional wisdom with the latest scientific

advances. This results in integrated, nature-based agro ecosystems designed

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to be self-reliant, resource conserving and productive in both the short and

long terms.

Aldo Leopold summed up the concept of ecological soundness quite

simply, “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and

beauty of the biotic community. It’s wrong when it tends to be otherwise.”

Derived from the Greek word for house, in current usage “eco” implies the

wisdom and authority to manage in the best interests of the household.

Species diversity is essential to achieve self-regulation and resultant stability.

An ecologically sound agriculture also must be resource efficient in order

to conserve precious resources, avoid systems toxicity and decrease input

costs.

Essential to the notion of economic viability is the requirement that there

be a positive net return, or at least a balance, in terms of resources expended

and returned. Ignored in current accounting are numerous subsidies that

make agriculture appear economically viable, and hidden costs such as loss

of wildlife, and healthcare costs from chemical exposure.

In addition to short-term market factors relating to supply and demand,

real viability requires an understanding of a number of other considerations,

including relative risk and qualitative factors (security, beauty, satisfaction),

which are often ignored in economists’ models because they are difficult to

quantify. Aldo Leopold wondered, “Do economists know about lupines?”

The sustainable system must assure that resources and power are

distributed equitably so that the basic needs of all are met and their

rights are assured. This requires equitable control of resources and full

participation. Whether in the field, market or voting both, all people must be

able to participate in the vital decisions that govern their lives.

Access to land is necessary in order for a majority of the world’s

population to escape poverty and grow the food it requires. As important as

equitable land tenure is the availability of adequate resources to succeed in

this effort, including capital, technical assistance and market opportunities.

At the same time, the rights of landless farm workers and the urban poor

must be recognized. This requires fair wages, a safe work environment,

proper living conditions and the right to nutritious, healthy food.

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Finally, agriculture must embody our highest values (kindness, mercy,

sympathy) in all aspects – from respect for life to the protection of diverse

cultures. Humans clearly have an interdependent relationship with animals –

from their physical labor and companionship to their invaluable recycling of

organic matter and provision of food – but too often animals are seen only as

objects to be exploited. Humane agriculture must be based on a fundamental

respect for animals and recognition of their rights.

It is equally important that the highest values apply to human interactions.

Cultural roots are as important to agriculture as plant roots. Without

strong communities and vibrant cultures, agriculture will not flourish. The

increasing substitution of the term “agribusiness” for “agriculture” reflects

a fundamental shift to a monetized economy in which everything, including

human beings, is assigned a certain value. Such a system leads to an

increased sense of competition, isolation and alienation. As rural societies

break down, their values are lost as the backbone of the larger society.

Without such a backbone, agriculture is neither humane nor sustainable.

ED THOMPSON

California State director & Senior Associate, American Farmland Trust,

davis, CA

“U.S. Agricultural Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for Preserving

Urban Edge Agriculture”

The federal government has been involved with agriculture since Abraham

Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture. While agriculture is often

perceived as an independent enterprise, in fact many farmers have a silent

partner – Uncle Sam – who contributes about $20 billion a year in commodity

subsidies, conservation payments, and other agricultural programs. Every

five years or so, Congress writes a Farm Bill to distribute this largesse. We

need a broader framework that includes all agriculture influenced by urban

land uses and economics so that Farm Bill money is better distributed

to benefit agriculture at the metropolitan edge, which is extensive and

important.

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Farms located in metropolitan statistical area counties account for one-

third of total U.S. agricultural production. If we include adjacent counties that

have some urban influence, it climbs to 56 percent; in California the urban

edge share is about 70 percent. Eighty-six percent of U.S. fruit and vegetable

production comes from metropolitan counties. Two-thirds of dairy products,

40 percent of meat & poultry and a third of staple grains are produced near

cities.

Metro edge agriculture is also distinguished by the exceptional

productivity of the land. Our agrarian ancestors settled the most fertile

ground and their farm market towns have grown into metropolises. All over

the U.S., cities are surrounded by the best farmland. In many Central Valley

counties, high quality farmland comprises 70 percent of the land within city

spheres of influence. This is the land we can least afford to lose, yet it is the

most vulnerable.

The most distinguishing characteristic of metropolitan edge agriculture is

its impermanence. Cities continue to spread, consuming a million additional

acres a year – 50,000 acres in California alone. In California’s Central Valley

– the nation’s, and possibly the world’s, single greatest food producing

resource – development each year paves over an acre of irreplaceable

farmland for every 8 people. Resulting land use conflicts and increasing

calls for regulation by neighbors increase the risks and cost of farming. Land

speculation drives the price of farmland above what commercial agriculture

can afford. Disinvestments in agriculture compel landowners to produce the

land’s last crop: houses and shopping malls.

On the bright side, larger cities mean more hungry mouths to feed.

Metropolitan edge agriculture has the advantage of proximity to urban

consumers who are growing more sophisticated about fresh food, healthy

diets, and the effect of a global food system on energy demands and climate

change. As the real costs of food production and transportation become

manifest, local food can only grow in importance. The competitive advantage

of metro edge agriculture will also grow, so long as we can prevent urban

sprawl from over-running it.

Federal agricultural policy could help in three important ways. First, it

could help establish a real urban edge – a definitive line of demarcation

between where we build and where we farm – that provides certainty to

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both developers and farmers. While land use decisions are made locally,

Washington can play a key role by funding farmland protection programs

that make effective regulation more palatable and fair to farmers.

The second way federal farm policy could help metro edge agriculture

is by financing better environmental stewardship by farmers and ranchers.

California producers face the strictest air and water pollution laws in the

country, and must also deal with water and habitat issues. The cost of

environmental compliance goes right to the bottom line, since farmers

cannot pass it along to consumers in higher food prices. Resistance to

environmental regulation by farmers is not due to antipathy toward the

environment, but to economics: most producers want to do the right thing,

but simply lack the means. There are many environmental conservation

programs in the farm bill that can help: environmental quality incentives,

conservation reserve, wetlands reserve, grasslands reserve, and wildlife

habitat improvement among them. In recent years, they have collectively

accounted for only 10 to 15 percent of total federal farm spending. Most of

the money has gone to producers in the Great Plains, remote from any urban

area.

A third way federal farm policy could help metro edge agriculture is to

better enable it to take advantage of the proximity of the urban market.

While agriculture should not abandon overseas markets or free trade

agreements, a parallel strategy of maximizing the potential of local markets

should be pursued. American Farmland Trust’s 2007 farm bill agenda calls

for a $1 billion annual fund to be distributed to states for the purpose of

promoting a wide range of new production and marketing opportunities,

including those that would benefit metro edge farmers large and small. The

states would decide what their priorities are and this would give metro edge

agriculture in California a distinct advantage.

Finally, the only affordable way to satisfy the unmet needs of metropolitan

edge agriculture is to reform the federal farm subsidy system that now costs

taxpayers $20 billion a year. Eighty percent of that money goes to just 15

percent of the farmers who grow only 5 crops. Though California produces

12 percent of the nation’s total farm output – much of it from the metro edge

– it receives only 3 percent of federal farm spending. This system not only

rewards those who are the least market-oriented and produce commodities

that are at the bottom of the nutrition pyramid; it also distorts international

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trade, making agriculture vulnerable to litigation and the U.S. subject to

retaliatory WTO sanctions.

AFT has proposed that the current subsidy system be replaced by a

safety net based on farm revenue insurance. In order for federal farm policy

to better serve metropolitan edge agriculture, there needs to be overall

federal farm policy reform to free up the resources to make it happen.

Federal assistance alone will not be the salvation of metro edge agriculture.

But continued federal neglect of this vital segment of our food production

system will almost surely have consequences that extend beyond what we

eat to the livability of our urban communities and the quality of life for the

majority of Americans.

CONSTANCE wASHBuRN

Education director, Marin Agricultural land Trust, TOWN, CA

“Cooperative and Diverse Approaches to Preserving and Supporting

Agriculture at the Urban Edge” (See accompanying PowerPoint presentation,

“Marin County; Using a Cooperative…”)

Located in the urban San Francisco Bay Area, Marin County has a

flourishing and viable agricultural economy, proving that planning efforts and

community involvement in support of farming can be successful. Over half

the county is privately owned agricultural land with an annual value of $54

million. In West Marin, the agricultural landscape provides a broad range of

values and benefits to residents and visitors alike. Marin leaders recognize

that farmland provides open space, scenic vistas, watershed protection, and

wildlife habitat.

The importance of agriculture is underscored in county-wide planning,

housing, and transportation goals. The Marin community has worked

together using a multi-pronged approach involving public and private

agencies, community groups and individuals. The Marin Agricultural Land

Trust has permanently protected 38,000 acres, one-third of the farmland in

the county, with agricultural easements.

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Still, agriculture in Marin County faces major challenges:

• potential loss of a critical mass of farmland through conversion to

non-farm uses

• loss of generational continuation due to tax burdens and multiple

ownership of farmland

• intensifying regulatory environment

• limited supplies of water

• increased competition from regional agricultural producers

• high land values based on development value; and

• the global open market for agricultural producers

Niche markets and proximity to metropolitan markets, and informed

consumers who demand locally produced and organic products are

opportunities for Marin farmers.

BRONwyNNE wIlTON

doctoral Student, Rural Studies, University of Guelph

“Local Food, Horses, and Lifestyle at the Metropolitan Edge in Southern

Ontario, Canada” (See accompanying Power Point presentation”)

This presentation highlights the issues related to three sectors of land

ownership in the highly contested urban-rural fringe of the Greater Golden

Horseshoe Area. Research results from the Farmland Preservation Research

Project at the University of Guelph, as well as the development of the Ontario

Farmland Trust, are also presented.

The Greater Golden Horseshoe Area is one of the fastest growing regions

in Canada and is expected to increase from 7.4 million people to 10.5 million

people over the next 25 years. The province of Ontario has recently initiated

a series of land use planning policies aimed at curbing urban sprawl in this

region.

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While this region boasts some of the highest quality agricultural land in

Canada, the impact of urbanization combined with the trend towards larger,

intensified farms has made it increasingly difficult to maintain conventional

agriculture in this region. Due to the recent provincial policy initiatives, in

particular the Greenbelt Act, urban development of prime agricultural land

within the Greenbelt is now restricted regardless of property ownership.

At the same time, there has also been an expanding interest in the “local

food” movement, driven primarily by consumer demand from the urban

population of Toronto. While the local food movement is changing the nature

of agriculture within the Greenbelt, farms are also being purchased by both

non-farm rural landowners seeking ‘lifestyle’ properties and by people in the

rapidly growing equine industry in Ontario. For example, there was a 19%

increase in adult horse owners in Ontario in the period between 1998 and

2003.

In response to the growing pressure on farmland in the region, a new

organization called the Ontario Farmland Trust was formed to provide an

alternative method of protecting farmland in perpetuity.

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CARl ANTHONy

Ford Foundation Senior Fellow

Carl Anthony is a Ford Foundation Senior Fellow and

Visiting Scholar at the Department of Geography at the

University of California at Berkeley. Prior to his current

position he was Acting Director of the Community and

Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation, where he directed

the Foundation’s Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative and the

Regional Equity Demonstration. Carl funded the national Conversation

on Regional Equity (CORE), a dialogue of national policy analysts and

advocates for new metropolitan racial justice strategies. Prior to joining

the Foundation he was Co-Chair of the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable

Development (BAASD) and founding Executive Director of the Urban

Habitat Program. With a colleague, Luke Cole at the California Rural Legal

Assistance Foundation, he founded and published the Race, Poverty and the

Environment Journal, the only environmental justice periodical in the United

States.

Carl Anthony

Randall Arendt

Jo Ann Baumgartner

Christopher Cabaldon

Susan R. Clark

Nevin Cohen

Judy Corbett

Margaret Crawford

Elizabeth Deakin

Michael Dimock

David E. Dowall

Timothy P. Duane

Sally Fairfax

Gail Feenstra

Andy Fisher

Harrison S. Fraker

Steven Frisch

Martha Guzmán

Glenda Humiston

Lynn Huntsinger

Richard Jackson

A.G. Kawamura

Holly A. King

Sibella Kraus

Claire Kremen

Rex Laird

John Landis

Rick Landon

Donlyn Lyndon

Andrea MacKenzie

Mike McKeever

Albert G. (Al) Medvitz

Paul Muller

Gary Patton

Susan Roberts

Richard Rominger

Steve Shaffer

Edward Thompson

Tom Tomich

Dick Walker

Constance Washburn

Carol Whiteside

Bronwynne Wilton

David Zilberman

34

RANDAll ARENDT, fRTPI, ASlA

Planner, landscape Architect, Author

Randall Arendt is a landscape planner, site designer,

author, lecturer, and an advocate of “conservation

planning”. He is also Senior Conservation Advisor for

the Natural Lands Trust in Media, PA; Founder and President of Greener

Prospects, Narragansett Pier, RI. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of

the Royal Town Planning Institute in London. In 2004 he was named an

Honorary Member of the ASLA, and in 2005 he received the AIA’s Award for

Collaborative Achievement. Arendt has many books to his credit, including

the award-winning Dealing with Change in the Connecticut River Valley: A

Design Manual for Conservation and Development, which he coauthored; and

it's sequel entitled Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town, which is among

39 volumes recommended by the APA for “the essential planning library”.

JO ANN BAuMGARTNER

Executive director, Wild Farm Alliance

Jo Ann Baumgartner is director of the WildFarm Alliance (WFA), whose

mission is to promote a healthy, viable agriculture that protects and restores

wild Nature. WFA envisions ecologically managed farms and ranches that

gracefully meld into landscapes supporting, if possible, the full range of

native species and ecosystem services. Jo Ann is coeditor of the recently

published book Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature: Essays in Conservation-

Based Agriculture and the author of many WFA Briefing Papers. Before

joining WFA in 2001, Jo Ann worked on dairy, fruit and vegetable issues

with the Ecological Farming Association and on fiber production with the

Sustainable Cotton Project.

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CHRISTOPHER CABAlDON

Mayor, City of West Sacramento

Christopher L. Cabaldon was first elected Mayor of

West Sacramento in 1998, becoming the youngest mayor

in the city’s history. He is now serving his fifth term as

mayor. Cabaldon is also President/CEO of EdVoice, a statewide nonprofit

network of citizens and education philanthropists fighting for public schools.

He served for five years as Vice Chancellor of the California Community

Colleges, the largest system of higher education in the United States, and

is an adjunct faculty member in public policy and administration at CSU

Sacramento. Cabaldon was a top policy expert with the State Legislature

for nearly a decade, serving as the staff director of the Assembly Higher

Education Committee and chief of staff to the chair of the Assembly finance

committee. Cabaldon serves on the advisory boards for the UC Davis School

of Education and for New Schools, Better Neighborhoods, a nonprofit

organization implementing a new vision for building schools as centers of

community.

SuSAN R. ClARK

Executive director, Columbia Foundation

Susan Clark has been the executive director of the

Columbia Foundation since 1979 and previously served

as the executive director of the Mortimer Fleishhacker

Foundation. Columbia Foundation’s programs include major initiatives in

sustainable food and farming; human rights including freedom-to-marry

campaigns and promotion of full public financing of political campaigns; and

support for the arts in San Francisco and London, including founding grants

for the Creative Work Fund, a funding collaborative in San Francisco for the

support of individual artists in collaboration with communities. Clark is also

a cofounder and member of the steering committee of the Roots of Change

Fund, a foundation collaborative that works to promote the transition to

sustainable food and farming systems in California.

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NEvIN COHEN

Visiting Assistant Professor, Eugene lang College, The

New School, New york City

Nevin Cohen is an assistant professor of urban

environmental studies at The New School, in New York City.

He is a scholar and planning practitioner who specializes

in sustainable development planning and policy, corporate environmental

policy making, strategies to enhance citizen participation in environmental

decision-making, and the application of information technology to

environmental problems. Dr. Cohen’s current research focuses on three

dimensions of sustainable urban food systems: strategies to foster civic

agriculture in the metropolitan region; the community impacts of school

lunch innovations; and methods to integrate food systems into urban

planning practice.

JuDy CORBETT

Executive director, local Government Commission

Judith A. Corbett is the founder of and, since 1982, has

served as Executive Director of the Local Government

Commission. She holds an M.S. in Ecology from the

University of California, Davis and was codeveloper of the highly acclaimed

Village Homes development in Davis, California. Village Homes continues to

attract international attention as a ground-breaking model for sustainable

development. Corbett has coauthored three books on resource-efficient land

use and building design, and published over 50 policy guidebooks for local

government officials on topics ranging from hazardous waste reduction,

recycling, energy conservation and resource-efficient land use patterns and

is the recipient of the APA’s 2005 Distinguished Leadership Award for a

Citizen Planner.

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MARGARET CRAwfORD

Professor of Urban design and Planning Theory at the

harvard Graduate School of design

Margaret Crawford is Professor of Urban Design and

Planning Theory at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

She teaches courses in the history and theory of urban development,

planning, and design. Her research focuses on the evolution, uses and

meanings of urban space. Her book, Building the Workingman’s Paradise:

The Design of American Company Towns, examines the rise and fall of

professionally designed industrial environments. Her recent book Nansha

Coastal City: Landscape and Urbanism in the Pearl River Delta was published

in early 2006 and coedited by Alan Berger. Before coming to the GSD,

Crawford was the Chair of the History, Theory and Humanities program at

the Southern California Institute for Architecture.

ElIzABETH DEAKIN

Professor of City & Regional Planning and Urban design,

UC Berkeley

Elizabeth Deakin is Director of the University of California

Transportation Research Center and Professor of City and

Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, where she also is an affiliated faculty

member of the Energy and Resources Group and the Master of Urban Design

group. She is codirector of the UC Berkeley Global Metropolitan Studies

Initiative, which involves nearly 100 faculty members from 12 departments.

Deakin’s research focuses on transportation and land use policy and the

environmental impacts of transportation. She has published over 100 articles,

book chapters, and reports on topics ranging from environmental justice

to transportation pricing to development exactions and impact fees. She

currently is conducting a study benchmarking transit-oriented development

and developing TOD guidelines for the Federal Transit Administration.

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MICHAEl DIMOCK

Executive director, Roots of Change

In July of 2006, Michael Dimock accepted a position as

Executive Director of the Roots of Change fund. He has

focused on agriculture and the food system since 1989.

Since the early 1990s, he has been helping communities,

NGOs, and businesses to build consensus and implement plans related to

agricultural policy and marketing, resource stewardship, and sustainability.

Dimock founded the Ag Innovations Network and is the former Chairman

of Slow Food USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a good,

clean, and just food system, with particular emphasis on food biodiversity,

creating meaningful links between producers and consumers, and the

pleasures of the table.

DAvID E. DOwAll

Professor of City & Regional Planning; director, Institute of

Urban & Regional development

City planning professor David Dowall assumed leadership

of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD)

in 2004. He has worked with IURD since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1976.

Over the years, his research has focused on both domestic and international

land management, housing policy, economic development strategy and

infrastructure planning and finance. Internationally, Dowall has carried out

policy research and designed technical and financial assistance strategies for

cities and regions in over 40 countries. Although he is known for his empirical

and analytical work on urban land economics and infrastructure finance, he

has spent over 20 years working with governments and nongovernmental

organizations on neighborhood and urban development projects.

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TIMOTHy P. DuANE

Associate Professor, City & Regional Planning and

landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning

(Environmental Planning and Policy), UC Berkeley

Timothy P. Duane is one of the world’s leading experts

on land use and ecosystem management in the west. His

publications include Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in

the Changing West, “Community Participation in Ecosystem Management”

in Ecology Law Quarterly and “Regulation’s Rationale: Learning from the

California Energy Crisis” in the Yale Journal on Regulation. Professor Duane

served as a special consultant to the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project

in 1993-1996, was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to the

California Spotted Owl Federal Advisory Committee in 1997, and is now

working on a new book tentatively titled Wolves, Water, and Wilderness:

Ecosystem Management in the Changing West. His other recent projects

include an external evaluation of the Packard Foundation’s $291-million

Conserving California Landscapes Initiative and a project to maximize the

public benefits of agricultural conservation easements.

SAlly fAIRfAx

henry J. Vaux distinguished Professor of Forest Policy,

UC Berkeley

Sally Fairfax’s research has always focused on public

resources, principally those managed by the United States

Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Within that broad topic, her interests include legal aspects of resource

administration, agency history and culture as it affects management

decisions, and the relationship between federal and state governments. Over

the years she has worked with diverse students and colleagues on water

law and management, especially federal reserved water rights and ground

water, minerals leasing, and public lands policy and history. Sally is currently

focused on changing institutions of resource management, on the mixture of

public and private ownership, institutions, and priorities that is emerging to

achieve public goals in land management and conservation.

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GAIl fEENSTRA

Food Systems Coordinator, UC Sustainable Agriculture

Research and Education Program

Gail Feenstra is the food systems coordinator at the UC

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

She coordinates SAREP’s Community Development and

Public Policy Program which includes managing SAREP’s community

development and public policy grants, conducting applied and evaluative

research that strengthens community development efforts and coordinating

education and outreach to community-based groups to build their capacity

and leadership skills. Gail is also a nutritionist with a background in nutrition

education. She is always looking for creative ways to strengthen the

connections between producers and consumers, and between urban and

rural communities through participation in sustainable, community food

systems.

ANDy fISHER

Executive director, Community Food Security Coalition

Andy Fisher has been the Executive Director for the

Community Food Security Coalition for 10 years and is the

author of numerous reports on food security related topics

and an expert on other food system related topics including

farmers markets, farm to school, urban agriculture, food policy councils,

access to supermarkets in low-income communities, and food banking.

His efforts have led to a new food and agriculture movement around

food security and new federal programs that grant millions of dollars to

community based groups for nutrition and food-related projects. His current

projects include the development of a booklet on food security projects

undertaken by food banks, starting regional organizing programs across the

country, and federal farm to school legislation.

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HARRISON S. fRAKER

dean, College of Environmental design; William W.

Wurster Professor of Architecture and Urban design

Harrison Fraker was educated as an architect and urban

designer at Princeton and Cambridge Universities and is

recognized as a pioneer in passive solar, daylighting and

sustainable design research and teaching. He has pursued a career bridging

innovative architecture and urban design education with an award-winning

practice. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for creating a

new College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of

Minnesota and was appointed the founding Dean. He was granted Fellowship

in the AIA College of Fellows for his distinguished career of bridging

education and practice. Fraker has published seminal articles on the design

potential of sustainable systems and urban design principles for transit

oriented neighborhoods.

STEvEN fRISCH

Vice President for Programs, Sierra Business Council

Steve is a dedicated project manager with over 20 years experience

managing people in a highly competitive environment. He is a founding

member of the Sierra Business Council and graduate of the Sierra Leadership

Seminar. He manages SBC’s program staff and programmatic development

including a variety of programs such as Placer Legacy, the Sierra Nevada

Conservancy effort, and the Working Landscapes Initiative – a program

that has protected 30,000 acres of working farms and ranches that are

essential to our region’s economy, wildlife and cultural legacy. Since joining

SBC, Steve has managed public outreach and served as project director of

the Placer Legacy Program, a public/private partnership with Placer County

California, and winner of the 2002 Governor’s Economic and Environmental

Leadership Award. He has also coauthored the Sierra Nevada Resource

Investment Needs Assessment, and fostered the creation of two landscape-

level conservation programs that link conservation with local economic

development.

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MARTHA GuzMÁN

legislative Advocate for the California Rural legal

Assistance Foundation

Martha Guzmán is a Legislative Advocate for the

California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation advocating

on Farm Worker Health and Safety issues, Environmental

Justice and Education Justice. Her current advocacy work has concentrated

on occupational and environmental hazards like heat illness and pesticide

exposure. In 2003, she served as the Legislative Coordinator for the United

Farm Workers, AFL-CIO, covering a range of labor and environmental issues.

She is currently an active member of the Environmental Justice Coalition

for Water and a council member of the Roots of Change Fund. Guzmán is

a board member of the Ag Innovations Network and a board member of

Community to Community Development.

GlENDA HuMISTON

Phd Candidate, UC Berkeley, Environmental Science, Policy

& Management

Glenda Humiston has spent over twenty years

working on public policy development and program

implementation that supports sustainability. Toward that goal, Humiston

has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, as Executive Director of

nonprofit advocating farmland preservation, and taken on many difficult

challenges throughout the western states as a consultant on environmental

and agricultural issues. In that capacity she developed a Rangeland Water

Quality Management plan for the state of California that has become a

model in many western states and received widespread support. She served

from 1998 – 2001 as Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the

Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While there, she received

national honor awards from both USDA and EPA as well as two “Hammer”

Awards from Vice President Gore for outstanding government programs.

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lyNN HuNTSINGER

Professor, Environmental Science, Policy & Management,

UC Berkeley

Lynn Huntsinger’s research addresses resource management

as a shaper of landscapes, with consequences for ecosystems and people.

Ranching as a form of resource management has a part in landscape and

natural resource conservation. Creating a “sustainable” landscape implies

application of many of the same principles as those used in planning for

wildlife reserves, but some of the ideas of conservation biology need to be

thought about in terms of conserving social as well as ecological elements

and processes. Huntsinger is examining the developing role of ranching in

land conservation in California. There is a growing and not uncontroversial

movement using creative forms of title to conserve ranch lands for habitat

conservation, open space, and cultural values.

RICHARD JACKSON, MD, MPH

Adjunct Professor, School of Public health, UC Berkeley

Richard Joseph Jackson has served in many leadership

positions with the California Health Department, including

the highest: the State Health Officer. For nine years he

was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s)

National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta. In 2005 he was

recognized with the highest civilian award for US Government service, the

Presidential Distinguished Executive Award. While in California his work led

to the establishment of the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and

state and national laws that eliminated a series of dangerous pesticides. He

was the US lead under several US government efforts around health and

environment in Russia, including radiation threats. Jackson has coauthored

Urban Sprawl and Public Health and served on many medical and health

boards. In September 2005 Jackson was selected to serve on the Board of

Directors of the American Institute of Architects.

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A.G. KAwAMuRA

Secretary, California department of Food and Agriculture

A.G. Kawamura was appointed Secretary of the California

Department of Food and Agriculture in November 2003

and is a produce grower and shipper from Orange County,

where his family grows strawberries, green beans and other

specialty crops. Secretary Kawamura has a long history of public service to

his community and to agriculture, and is widely known for his passion for

education and commitment to the issues of hunger and nutrition. At the time

of his appointment, he was a member of the California State Board of Food

and Agriculture, where he had served since 1998. Kawamura is the immediate

past chairman of the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee, and former

president of Orange County Harvest, where he arranged for thousands of

volunteers to harvest and glean over a million pounds of produce for area

food banks. His nationally recognized urban projects, such as the 7-acre

Common Ground project in San Juan Capistrano and 4-acre Incredible Edible

Park in Irvine, are agricultural paradigms linking nutritional education and

interaction with local schools and food banks.

HOlly A. KING

director of Agricultural Programs, Great Valley Center

Holly A. King is the Director of Agricultural Programs

at the Great Valley Center, overseeing the Agricultural

Transactions (ATP) and Sustainable Agriculture Programs.

ATP is designed to create successful and strategic ag land

conservation models and increase land conservation organization capacity

through the provision of resources, support and assistance. Within the

Sustainable Agriculture Programs, King develops links between the various

issues faced by, and parties involved in, California Agriculture, creating

educational venues throughout the Central Valley and developing projects

related to sustainable agricultural practices. She is a member of the California

Roundtable of Agriculture and the Environment; the California Council of

Land Trust’s Agricultural Working Group; a graduate of the California Ag

Leadership Program; a retired member of their Board of Directors; is a

University of Nevada, Reno graduate with a degree in Agricultural Business

and holds an MBA from UCLA.

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SIBEllA KRAuS

director, Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge Program,

UC Berkeley

Sibella Kraus has developed innovative and successful

sustainable agriculture enterprise, research, and education

projects in the Bay Area region for over 25 years. In the

fall of 2006, she became the founding director of the Agriculture at the

Metropolitan Edge program under the auspices of the UC Berkeley Center

for Global Metropolitan Studies. Sibella also directs Sustainable Agriculture

Education (SAGE), a nonprofit organization whose primary focus is the

preservation and viability of urban edge agriculture. Prior to forming

SAGE, Sibella founded, and directed from 1993-2000, the Center for Urban

Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) and was responsible for

the development of the nationally acclaimed Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market and

the market’s renowned education programs. Sibella began her career as a

cook at Chez Panisse Restaurant. She also worked for a decade for the San

Francisco Chronicle as a staff writer with a focus on regional agriculture.

ClAIRE KREMEN

Assistant Professor, Environmental Science, Policy &

Management, UC Berkeley

As a conservation biologist, Claire Kremen seeks

mechanisms for slowing or preventing the loss of

biodiversity, one of the greatest environmental challenges facing humanity

in the 21st century. Estimates of the magnitude of species extinction vary

greatly, but one thing is clear – current rates of extinction far exceed those of

past major extinction spasms. In her research, she works with two strategies,

a “protected area” strategy and an “ecosystem service” strategy, finding they

work in a complementary fashion (often in different parts of the landscape),

to reconcile human resource use with biodiversity conservation. A central

goal in her approach is to provide information, techniques or tools of use to

real-world situations.

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REx lAIRD

director, Ventura County Farm Bureau

Rex Laird is CEO of the Ventura County Farm Bureau

and has served on numerous committees and commissions

concerning such issues as water, land use, air quality,

and agricultural chemicals. He is participating in the Ag

Futures Alliance Committee, a diverse group formed to promote better

understanding and dialog on agricultural issues and is active in the Ventura

Chamber of Commerce and also serves on the Ventura County Sheriff’s

Mounted Posse. He is a team member on the Roots of Change sponsored

Building Momentum for Change Leadership Network project. This project

is building a California county leadership network and strengthening the

collaboration among leaders working on county-level food systems issues.

JOHN lANDIS

Professor of City & Regional Planning, UC Berkeley

John D. Landis has been a DCRP faculty member since

1987. He served as DCRP chair from 2002 through 2005.

His current research focuses on modeling and simulating

urban growth at the local, metropolitan, regional, and national levels; on the

impacts of urban development on the natural environment; on the potential

for expanding infill housing construction; and on affordable housing policy

and development in the U.S. and abroad. Past work has focused on land

use regulation and housing costs, and on the effects of transportation

improvements on land use patterns and property values. Professor Landis

is a member of the American Planning Association and the Urban Land

Institute, and was a ULI Fellow from 1992 through 2000. He is a member of

the Governing Board of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

(ACSP) and the editorial review board of the Journal of the American

Planning Association.

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RICK lANDON

Agricultural Commissioner, yolo County

Rick Landon graduated from UCLA with B.A. in Zoology

and a Secondary Teaching Credential. He began his career

as Agricultural Biologist in Santa Barbara County where

he served for 7 years. He later became the owner/operator of a Wholesale

Nursery in San Luis Obispo County for 6 years where he served as Deputy

Agricultural Commissioner for 11 years. After leaving the Central Coast, he

was the Assistant Agricultural Commissioner in Sutter County for 3 years and

then became the Agricultural Commissioner in Yolo County where he has

been for 6 years. Rick has been married for 35 years with three children and

three grandchildren.

DONlyN lyNDON

Eva li Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Urban

design, UC Berkeley; Editor, Places Journal

Professor Lyndon’s work as an architect, author and

educator concerned with the design of places has been

widely recognized. He is the Editor of PLACES, a journal of environmental

design, author of The Sea Ranch (with Jim Alinder) and The City Observed:

Boston, and coauthor of Chambers for a Memory Palace and The Place of

Houses. He serves on many boards, including the Boards of the International

Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design, in Italy; and of the Charles

Moore Center for the Study of Place in Austin TX. Lyndon's architectural and

urban design practice has included a continuing series of works at the Sea

Ranch CA, where, with MLTW, he was one of the designers of Condominium

One, (1965) which subsequently received the distinguished 25 year Award

from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Lyndon's work has received

numerous design awards and he is frequently asked to serve on architectural

competition juries. His work as an educator was honored in 1997 with the

AIA-ACSA’s Topaz Award, the highest award in architectural education.

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ANDREA MACKENzIE

General Manager, Sonoma County Agricultural

Preservation and Open Space district

In September 2000, Andrea Mackenzie was appointed

by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors as General

Manager of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space

District. Mackenzie has worked for the District since 1996 and was the

Senior Planner/Project Manager for the District’s Acquisition Plan 2000. She

brings a passion for land preservation and a strong professional interest in

addressing regional conservation issues at the urban/rural edge. MacKenzie

has a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of

California at Santa Barbara and a Masters Degree in Urban Planning and

Natural Resources from the University of California at Los Angeles

MIKE MCKEEvER

Executive director, Sacramento Area Council of

Governments (SACOG)

Mike McKeever, AICP, was appointed Executive Director

of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments Board of

Directors on December 17, 2004. Previously, McKeever was

project manager of the Blueprint Project at SACOG. Over his 20-year career

specializing in the field of planning, he has owned and managed two private

businesses that specialized in working with local governments on innovative

multi-jurisdictional projects and has been instrumental in developing cutting-

edge planning techniques to integrate land use and transportation planning.

McKeever has authored several manuals and guidebooks on various aspects

of local government collaboration, and teaches "Stretching Community

Dollars" seminars throughout California for the City, County, Schools

Partnership, to help these units of government find creative ways to work

together.

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AlBERT G. (Al) MEDvITz

Rancher, UC davis Public Policy Specialist

Albert G. (Al) Medvitz is currently a rancher in Rio Vista California and

a visiting scholar in the Department of Animal Science at the University

of California at Davis. With his wife, Jeannie McCormack, he raises market

lambs, alfalfa, and dry land small grains on 3,700 acres on the banks of the

Sacramento River in Solano County. Medvitz writes on agricultural change

in California, and on science and culture; he has taught at the University

of California at Davis and California State University Hayward on matters

of agriculture and the environment, international agriculture, community

development, and the management of animal enterprises. Medvitz is active

in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and in

2004 was elected a Fellow of AAAS. He is currently a member of the Board

of Directors of the California Farm Bureau Federation and was a Sheldon

Traveling Fellow at Harvard University where he received his Ed.D and MAT.

He received a BS in Physics from UCLA.

PAul MullER

Co-Owner, Full Belly Farm

Paul Muller, can trace his farming roots back many generations on both

his mother and father’s sides of the family. He grew up on one of the last

dairy farms in San Jose, California, where the surrounding residents were

able to drive in and pick up their dairy products direct from the farm.

Urban development forced his family to close their dairy and move to the

northern Sacramento Valley where they are still farming. Muller studied at

California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the University

of California at Berkeley, moving on to farm organically, independently of

his family. Muller is hugely influential as a writer, speaker and organizer of

community events and was involved in the founding of California Certified

Organic Farmers. He has been voted onto the CCOF Board of Directors

several times, is a founding board member of Capay Valley Vision and is an

active board member of the Yolo County Land Trust.

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GARy PATTON

Executive director, Planning and Conservation league

Gary Patton is the Executive Director of the Planning and

Conservation League, and the Planning and Conservation

League Foundation. Based in Sacramento, PCL is working

for a fundamental reform of the state’s planning process, to

make sure that our future growth is not only good for the economy, but that

we preserve and protect our spectacular natural environment, and achieve

our social equity and public health goals in California’s local communities.

PCL has working for over 40 years for a system of laws to keep our state

both healthy and productive. Patton’s previous job assignments have

included: environmental attorney in private practice; member, Santa Cruz

County Board of Supervisors (for 20 Years); General Counsel, PCL-PCLF;

Executive Director, LandWatch Monterey County.

SuSAN ROBERTS

director, Food and Society Policy Fellows Program,

Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute

Susan Roberts is committed to developing strategies for

health promoting just, sustainable food systems, catalyzing

greater health among individuals, environments, and nations. She seeks to

integrate professional expertise and education of food, health, food systems,

and law through a variety of avenues to affect food systems through

policy. Roberts is the Director of the Food and Society Policy Fellows

Program funded by WK Kellogg Foundation through the Thomas Jefferson

Agricultural Institute and also works on staff at the Drake University Law

School Agricultural Law Center analyzing food policy as it relates to food

security, sustainable agriculture, and health. Roberts is the principle in

Roberts Law Firm, PLC and in Sue Roberts Health Concepts, a health and

wellness consulting firm specializing in obesity policy. Roberts is the recipient

of the 2003 National Environmental Nutrition Award, the 2004 Iowa Public

Health Nutrition Advocate Award, and the 2004 Association of State and

Territorial Public Health Nutrition Director’s National Award for Nutrition

Advocacy.

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RICHARD ROMINGER

Rominger Farms, yolo County; former Secretary,

California department of Food and Agriculture; former

Undersecretary, USdA

Richard Rominger is a California farmer of alfalfa, beans,

corn, rice and other crops, near Winters, California. He

headed the California Department of Food and Agriculture from 1977 to 1982

and served as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton from

1993 to 2001. During his tenure, he assisted the Secretary of Agriculture, Dan

Glickman, in supervising the USDA, charged with a mission that included

management of farm programs, conservation programs, domestic food

assistance, research and education and other functions. As President of the

Alumni Associations of the University of California, Rominger is serving as an

ex-officio Regent for a one-year term beginning July 1, 2005. He was on the

board of the American Farmland Trust from 1986 to 1993 and later in 2001.

He has been active in a number of professional agricultural organizations

concerned with soil and water policy, education, research and development,

and was an advisor to several universities in California, including UC Davis

and UC Riverside. Rominger received his bachelor’s degree in Plant Science

from the University of California, Davis.

STEvE SHAffER

director, California department of Food and Agriculture,

Office of Agriculture and Environmental Stewardship

Steve Shaffer is Director of the Office of Agriculture

and Environmental Stewardship for CDFA, the position he

has held since November 2000. The office is comprised of an outstanding

group of scientists who address environmental issues related to agriculture

using a multidisciplinary approach. In this capacity, Shaffer represents CDFA

on a number of environmental, energy and natural resource management

planning, implementation and monitoring activities as they relate to

agriculture. He has been involved in land use, air, water, energy and wildlife

policy related to agriculture, including the support of the production and use

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of biofuels, since 1981. Shaffer is currently serving on the Delta Protection

Commission, the board of the CA Biomass Collaborative, on the Interagency

Bioenergy Workgroup, and the Climate Action Team.

EDwARD THOMPSON

California State director & Senior Associate, American

Farmland Trust

Edward Thompson, Jr. became California state director

for American Farmland Trust in 2003, after serving the

organization since 1981 in various capacities. During his career at AFT,

Thompson has been involved in nearly every aspect of farmland protection.

In California, he helped draft the state’s right-to-farm law and legislation

establishing the California Farmland Conservancy Program. Thompson

also orchestrated AFT’s 1995 study Alternatives for Future Urban Growth

in California’s Central Valley, which helped put farmland preservation on

the map in the state’s most important agricultural region. Thompson also

collaborated with the late Marc Reisner, author of Cadillac Desert, on a study

of how more secure water rights for California farmers could encourage

farmland preservation.

TOM TOMICH

director, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and

Education Program; director Agricultural Sustainability

Institute, UC davis

Tom Tomich joined the University of California Davis

faculty in January 2007. He is founding director of the new Agricultural

Sustainability Institute, inaugural holder of the WK Kellogg Chair in

Sustainable Food Systems, and professor of community development,

environmental science and policy at UC Davis. Tomich also serves as director

of the UC ANR statewide Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Program and was principal economist for the World Agroforestry Centre

from 1994-2006. During that time, Tomich worked with the ASB Partnership

for the Tropical Forest Margins, leading long-term collaborative partnerships

at sites in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia, aiming to raise

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productivity and income of rural households without increasing deforestation

or undermining essential environmental services. Tomich also spent 10 years

as a policy advisor and institute associate with the Harvard Institute for

International Development and served as a lecturer in economics and public

policy at Harvard University.

CONSTANCE wASHBuRN

Education director at Marin Agricultural land Trust

Constance Washburn, Education Director at Marin

Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) for the past eleven years,

is working to reconnect people with local farms and food.

Washburn started a hikes, tours, and talks program and has trained over 150

volunteers who lead tours and educate the public regarding the importance

of local agriculture. She is the founder of the Marin Agriculture and Education

Alliance (MAEA), a consortium of agencies that work throughout the county

to promote agricultural literacy for a sustainable food system, training

teachers, school administrators, parents, and students. MAEA recently

completed a feasibility study for an Educational Farm and Garden project for

Marin. Washburn was a founding member of the Marin Food Systems Project

and sits on the Marin Food Policy Council.

DICK wAlKER

Chair, California Studies Center, UC Berkeley

Professor Walker’s interests include economic

geography, regional development, capitalism and politics,

cities and urbanism, resources and environment, California,

class and race. His best known work is in economic geography, especially The

Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology and Industrial Growth (Blackwell,

1989), with Michael Storper - one of the most cited books in the field. Since

1990, Professor Walker’s focus has been on California, a major economic,

political and cultural hearth of world capitalism. Walker served five years as

Department Chair, 1994-99, helping to re-shape Berkeley Geography. He has

many books to his credit, and has edited the journal Antipode throughout the

1990s. Walker has been Chair of a statewide California Studies Association

and of a California Studies Center at UC Berkeley since 2000.

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CAROl wHITESIDE

President, Great Valley Center

Carol Whiteside is the President of the Great Valley

Center, an organization she founded in August 1997 to

promote the economic, social and environmental well-

being of California’s Central Valley. Whiteside served as

the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for Governor

Pete Wilson on issues of land use, finance and restructuring and economic

development. She was Assistant Secretary at the California Resources

Agency and specialized in resource conservation, land use and growth

management issues. Whiteside also served on the Modesto City Schools’

Board of Education, the Modesto City Council, and was elected Mayor in

1987. Whiteside is a graduate of the University of California at Davis.

BRONwyNNE wIlTON

Phd Candidate, School of Environmental design and Rural

development, University of Guelph

Bronwynne Wilton is a PhD Candidate in the Rural

Studies program in the School of Environmental Design

and Rural Development at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario,

Canada. Wilton holds a M.S. in Landscape Architecture (Rural Planning) and

a B.S. (Agriculture) from the University of Guelph. Wilton is also a founding

member of the Ontario Farmland Trust and currently sits on it's Board

of Directors. She is the coeditor of the recently released book Farmland

Preservation – Land for Future Generations and is a sessional instructor in the

Department of Land Resource Science at the University of Guelph. Wilton is

currently conducting research related to the attitudes and behaviors of horse

farm owners in the urban-rural fringe areas in Ontario, Canada.

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DAvID zIlBERMAN

Professor, Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley

David Zilberman has been a professor in the Agricultural

and Resource Economics Department since 1979. He is

currently the director of the Giannini Foundation and a

fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association.

His research interests are in agricultural and nutritional policy, economics of

technological change, economics of natural resources and microeconomic

theory. He received his B.A. in Economics and Statistics from Tel Aviv

University in Israel and his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics

from UC Berkeley.

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Captions, clockwise:

Symposium Banner; Donlyn Lyndon with Sibella Kraus; Ed Thompson, AFT, Andy Fisher, CFSC and Susan Clark, Columbia Foundation; organic strawberries; organic wine; Jeanne McCormick, rancher; campus view, center.

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Captions, clockwise:

Slow Food table; Andrea Mackenzie; Betty Deakin and Karen Frick; lettuces; Capay Farms display; CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura, center.

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Captions, clockwise from top:

Sally Fairfax, Constance Washburn, Rex Laird; Carl Anthony, Ford Fellow; Susan Roberts, Kellogg Foundation and friend; campus view; Symposium Sponsor list; Middle: Holly King, top center; Martha Guzmán, bottom center.